Buying a mattress locally? As you do when you're buying a car, ask a few intelligent questions first. Then take a test drive. "Coil count" is an important consideration when buying a mattress. This refers to the number of springs in a pad, with 352 to 364 being a good count for a double-size mattress, about 400 for a queen-size and 439 to 450 for a king. However, says Mike Macario, sales manager for Haynes Furniture in Hampton, the thickness of the wire used for the coils also affects the mattress's firmness, so you should ask about the kind of wire used.

Two people were injured and a man has been charged after a shooting at a Norfolk mattress store on Monday afternoon. Police spokesman Chris Amos said the shooting occurred just past noon at Paramount Mattresses on Kingwood Avenue. He said a gunman entered the store and shot two employees. Both victims were transported to a local hospital. One of the victims initially had life-threatening injuries, but was upgraded to stable condition later in the day. The other victim did not sustain serious injuries.

Every Sunday evening when I change the sheets on the bed, I spend a few seconds stooped down on the floor, reaching blindly between the bulky mattresses for the elastic straps that keep the fabric from bunching. By then I'm usually tired and impatient from all the time spent working on our old house. And this past week — as my annoyance started to peak — I looked up to see that I was being watched. "Daddy, what are you doing?" asked my little boy, who'd clambered up to peer down over the edge of the bed. Then came the words that Owen's mom and I have heard with increasing frequency and occasional alarm over the past few months — "I help.

INFANT VACCINE FOR MENINGITIS A vaccine against the leading cause of meningitis can now be given to the infants who are at highest risk of the disease. The vaccine protects against a bacterium called Haemophilus b. It was approved in 1988 for use in children 18 months and older. Now the Food and Drug Administration says the vaccine can safely be given at 2 months of age, the same time as the DPT (diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus) vaccine. Three shots are given in six months, followed by a booster about a year later.

A Hampton woman was convicted last week of felony child neglect after her 3-year-old daughter accidentally shot herself in the head with a gun she found under a mattress. Katherine Louise Supplee, 23, of East Pembroke Avenue, was found guilty of two child neglect counts in a trial before Hampton Circuit Court Judge Christopher W. Hutton. One afternoon in August 2008, the toddler and a younger sibling were taking naps in a camper trailer that Supplee shared with the children and her boyfriend.

Loft beds have become as commonplace as pizza boxes and cans of diet soda in dorm rooms. At least 50 percent of the more than 8,000 dorm students at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg sleep atop lofts, according to university personnel. Lofts are available new or used. Some students construct their own. But any student considering one should check first to make sure they are permitted. At Old Dominion University in Norfolk, for instance, lofts are prohibited because of low ceilings and carpeting, says Kevin Keltz, the school's director of residence life.

The room may look pretty, but it may not be safe for infants. Bernadette Upton gives mothers-to-be a wake-up call with one sentence. "Typically," she says, "we bring baby home to the sickest room in the house." The nursery is "sick" because we think more about how the room will look than what it will do to our babies' health. Unknowingly, we buy what we think is cute rather than what's safe. Everything in the baby's room -- from the mattress to the paint on the walls -- can emit harmful volatile organic chemicals that can cause breathing problems.

In an interrogation room five hours after his arrest, murder suspect Walter Mickens Jr. remained cool under fire. The detective grilling Mickens couldn't even make him break a sweat. Until he mentioned DNA, that is. When detective Dallas Mitchell told Mickens police had that kind of evidence, Mickens turned so wet with sweat the stuff was dripping off his face, Mitchell said. Mitchell described Mickens' reaction while testifying in Newport News Circuit Court Tuesday morning.

Houston-based Mattress Firm Inc. has acquired all 26 Mattress Discounters stores in Hampton Roads and northeastern North Carolina, officials from both companies said Monday. The multimillion-dollar acquisition closed on Dec. 1. Terms were undisclosed. The stores will continue to operate under the Mattress Discounters name, and there will be "very little changes," said Sunni Williams, a Mattress Firm spokeswoman. "For the most part, they'll be operating as is. " Most of Mattress Discounters' roughly 80 local employees are expected to remain at the retailer, said Roger Magowitz, who operated the business since 1986 under a licensing agreement with the Maryland-based Mattress Discounters chain.

Scare tactics President Barack Obama says all those who oppose his health-care reform plan are using "scare tactics" to advance their opposition. Unfortunately, then he goes on to "scare" us into believing that we have to do this and we have to do it now or the world as we know it will end. The same is true of the Democratic leadership in Congress and the party headquarters. They are labeling all those voicing opposition as simply trying to prevent reform, even calling some "thugs."

A Hampton woman was convicted last week of felony child neglect after her 3-year-old daughter accidentally shot herself in the head with a gun she found under a mattress. Katherine Louise Supplee, 23, of East Pembroke Avenue, was found guilty of two child neglect counts in a trial before Hampton Circuit Court Judge Christopher W. Hutton. One afternoon in August 2008, the toddler and a younger sibling were taking naps in a camper trailer that Supplee shared with the children and her boyfriend.

When my wife cried out and called me into our baby's room a couple of Saturday mornings ago, I pretty much knew what I'd be seeing. For several weeks Owen had been flexing his little muscles, trying to pull his chin up past the long low rail of his antique nursing crib. So it came as no surprise when I walked in to find him propped up inside it on his knees, gleefully pulling a cloth blind aside so he could peek out the window. Indeed, Miriam had padded the floor with an old crib mattress just the night before - and when I heard her voice, I was in the next room assembling a much larger and more secure hand-me-down as a replacement.

Until last weekend, I had not slept on a pull-out couch in many years and had, more or less, forgotten the joys of this particular experience. But then my wife and I drove to New York to visit old friends and spent a couple of nights sleeping - ha, that's a good one - on their pull-out couch. And all the horrible memories came flooding back: the lumpy, San Quentin-thin mattress, the taut springs that dig into your sides, the metal bar positioned to jab the middle of your back for maximum discomfort, the way the bed caves in toward the middle so if two people are sleeping on it, you will both be pulled by gravity to a tiny space that wouldn't hold one of the Smurfs, where you'll spend the night elbowing and kicking each other for more room.

An Illinois town has pulled the plug on business mascots waving to drivers. Dressed in a baby-blue costume with comically big hands, Mattress Man danced and waved until recently in front of a store in northwest suburban McHenry, doing his bit to sell the benefits of a good night's sleep. "We usually send him out for a couple hours to attract attention," said Ray Westman, owner of the Verlo Mattress Factory Store on West Elm Street. "He can't be out there for more than five minutes without horns starting to blow.

Scare tactics President Barack Obama says all those who oppose his health-care reform plan are using "scare tactics" to advance their opposition. Unfortunately, then he goes on to "scare" us into believing that we have to do this and we have to do it now or the world as we know it will end. The same is true of the Democratic leadership in Congress and the party headquarters. They are labeling all those voicing opposition as simply trying to prevent reform, even calling some "thugs."

A woman threw her baby from a second-floor window into the arms of a stranger when fire trapped them in their Lafayette Village apartment Sunday night, she said. Lisa Brown, 26, bundled up her baby and threw him into the hands of Derek Waters, who was visiting a friend nearby. Brown then jumped, landing on a queen-size mattress neighbors brought for her. Leon Washington, 36, Brown's former boyfriend and the father of her year-old son, Evan, was arrested and charged with arson and attempted murder, said police Capt.

The room may look pretty, but it may not be safe for infants. Bernadette Upton gives mothers-to-be a wake-up call with one sentence. "Typically," she says, "we bring baby home to the sickest room in the house." The nursery is "sick" because we think more about how the room will look than what it will do to our babies' health. Unknowingly, we buy what we think is cute rather than what's safe. Everything in the baby's room -- from the mattress to the paint on the walls -- can emit harmful volatile organic chemicals that can cause breathing problems.

The structure didn't have a working smoke detector, but all occupants managed to escape. Two people were injured Tuesday when a fire ripped through an illegal boarding home in Norfolk, an official said. Firefighters and paramedics rushed to the home at 735 W. 28th St. at 2:14 p.m., after learning of the house fire, said battalion chief Bruce Evans. At least one person jumped to safety from the second floor of the home, Evans said. The three other occupants also escaped the burning home, but two of them were taken to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital for injuries, Evans said.